by Katie Marsden »
13 Aug 2007 13:14
Behindu Katie Marsden Behindu Katie Marsden [. I expect if they had Rooney, Tevez and Saha all on the pitch then things would have been very different in the last 30 minutes. The fact O'Shea had to be deployed as a make shift striker tells it's own story.
Of course we were missing Sonko, Lita, Convey and Little and our keeper was playing his first game back since breaking his hand. Clubs like Man United and Chelsea can NEVER claim that injuries affected their game. they have the funds to have almost endless world class cover for every position.
Injuries effect every side, no side has world class cover for every position. United and Chelsea only have 4 or 5 world class players in their starting line ups, so to claim they can afford world class third or fourth choice players yet again highlights your appalling understanding and knowledge of the game.
Once again your reply highlights your appalling lack of conversational skills.
Given that there can only be 20 or so 'world class' players then you are of course correct in a purely technical and pedantic sense.
The point which would have been obvious to those of normal ability is that clubs such as United and Chelsea with their massive wealth can comfortably buy 2nd, 3rd or 4th choice players that are beyond the budget of the likes of us. To fail to have adequate forward cover either on the pitch or on the bench cannot be put down to 'bad luck with injuries'. It is bad planning or bad management. there are (in real terms) no excuses for infinitely wealthy teams to blame their failure to beat small clubs on an injury. Chelsea were unconvincing last season when they balmed defeats on injuries to defenders (sorry Jose, you screwed up by letting defdners go and not signing good replacements) and Man Utd are equally unconvincing if they blame yesterday on an injury.
It clearly played a part. Just like it will for us on Wednesday now we're missing two strikers. After Rooney went off they had 4 strikers all injured or unfit. That's no ones fault, just a bit of bad luck. I'd like to see us try and break down Wigan if they put 10 men behind the ball if we were missing Lita, Kitson, Doyle and Long. I'm sure then you'd be citing bad luck and not having ago at Coppell for failing to have adequate cover.
As I said it was a good defensive display but hardly heroic or classic as some people have suggested. I thought the defensive display in the 1-1 draw was far more impressive as United had Rooney, Saha, Scholes and Ronaldo all pushed up towards the end of that game.